Tips for getting organised with your blog and managing a blog schedule

Have you ever felt like it’s difficult to juggle life as well as a blog? Trying to find a balance between working or studying, seeing your significant other, time for friends family, working out, looking after a house? Cos yeah same. To stop me feeling so snowed under, I try and stay organised and on top of my blog, so I’ve put together my tips for managing a blog schedule and getting organised with your blog.

Don’t get me wrong life can get in the way sometimes and that’s okay, and there have been plenty of times I’ve been sat there at 9pm on a Sunday night bashing out a post for the following day, but most of the time I try and stick to these rules to stay on top of things and keep organised with my blog which I hope will help you too.

GET ORGANISED

If you plan ahead what posts you want to do for the next couple of weeks, write a list in your phone or diary and tick them off as you go. I use a planner when I’ve scheduled my posts so I know what I’ve got planned to go up, so you can see that you aren’t posting anything too similar too close together and so I can easily look back and see what I posted when.

I love planners with space to write everything down and plan when I’m going to write a post or take photos for it. The planners from Old English Co.* are gorgeous and up there with my faves. They have such a gorgeous range and you can enter their competition to win a collection of four planners here* what a fab competition!

WRITE POST IDEAS DOWN

I have a blog post planner from Paper Chic Co on Etsy and that’s my place to write down all my ideas and tick them off when you’ve taken photos, drafted the post, and when they’re done. It only cost a couple of quid and you print off as many as you need, so handy!

Whenever you get inspiration, add it in to the planner so you don’t forget it and before you know it you have a plethora of ideas at your fingertips. This also helps to combat writers block as you can refer back to it whenever you get stuck.

Another tip is I also have a storage space especially for new products that I buy/receive so when I go to take photos all my products are in one place and it also reminds me it needs doing.

SET A BLOG POST SCHEDULE AND STICK TO IT

I post on my blog twice a week – Monday and Friday. When I first started my blog I posted 3/4 times a week and this became too much to handle with a full time job. Twice a week was the number that worked for me and was manageable with the other commitments in my life. I sometimes add a post in on a Wednesday if I’m super organised or have loads of time sensitive posts.

I’m not saying you should do the same schedule as me, but I’m saying find the number that works for you. Some people blog daily and I admire that but it just isn’t something that I can fit in and that’s okay too.

It’s worth noting that a lot of PR’s prefer schedules and followers like them as they know when they can expect you to post, but it isn’t the be all and end all and if you happen to miss one, it’s not the end of the world!

TAKE PHOTOS IN BULK

Every Saturday I would spend a couple of hours in the morning to take a tonne of photographs. I would take the photos for my posts for the following week and sometimes the week after if I’m super duper organised and know I’ll be busy the following weekend, as well as a few extra random ones for Instagram in between.

You can use a lot of the same props for different sets of photos just mix it around a little bit, or not if you have a ‘theme’ where every photos use the same. Weekends are a good time to take them as you don’t have to worry about chasing the light after work when it’s winter time, but if you have too, it’s worth investing in a decent box light, I use this* one from Amazon.

UTILISE SCHEDULING APPS

Apps such as Buffer and Hootsuite allow you to set up tweets promoting your blog posts for you so you don’t have to manually promote them! Every couple of days I go through my app of choice, Buffer, and make sure tweets are set up for the next few days with my most recent / popular posts, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook links etc! It no longer allows you to “rebuffer” previous tweets on the free plan, so the ones I use regularly such as social links, I save in my notes on my phone so I can copy and paste into the app.

SET REMINDERS TO POST

I don’t use scheduling apps to post to Instagram, so I set up a reminder on my phone every day to post something. I try and post on Instagram once a day, but as days can be busy I sometimes forget so I combat this by setting a reminder for the time I need to post. If you want to be super organised, you could save the post into your Instagram drafts the night before so it’s ready to go when you need it. This is particularly useful if you’re busy at work everyday!

MAKE FOLDERS IN YOUR GALLERY ON YOUR PHONE

When you’ve taken all of your photos, I go through them on my phone and edit the ones I want to use (I use Snapseed, FYI). I then save the best one of each shot into a separate folder I call “Insta Library” so that when I need to post it to Instagram, I don’t have to scroll through thousands of photos as they’re there and ready for you. I delete it when it’s posted so that my folder is up to date and I know what I have left at my disposal.

SET TIME OUT TO WRITE POSTS

Usually, I write my blog posts on a relaxing Sunday afternoon or in the evenings. I try and plan it around my schedule, for example if I know I have a completely free evening, I will designate that night to writing my posts.

Obviously this isn’t the same for everyone and everyone’s circumstances are different, but if you can look at your schedule and try and find a window of an hour or so to get a post written, block it out. If you commute, you could do the majority of the post on your blog app or in your notes (only if you don’t drive, obvs) or use your lunch hour to type a post up.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF UNEXPECTED FREE TIME

You know when your stood in a queue, or find yourself in the dentist waiting room with no signal, use this time to go through your phone and edit photos or check your post list and use this time to your advantage, so you have less to do when you come to do the post. I’m always editing photos at random times when I’m stuck for things to do!

OVERALL

For me, it’s all about planning ahead and getting organised. If you can’t plan that far ahead, don’t stress, and I appreciate everyone is different and has different circumstances so please don’t take this as me telling you what to do, it’s simply what works for me. It is such a good feeling seeing that I have a few posts lined up and scheduled!

So these are my tips for staying on top of your blog whilst juggling the rest of your life! Do you have any helpful tips you swear by? I’d love to know in the comments below.

10 Comments

The planner from Old English Co looks so nice. I just got something similar from Primark and it has been so useful. I’m really bad at using scheduling apps for tweets so need to try and work on that! x